East Akita · SembokuNo.1064★★Open in map →

Dakigaeri Gorge

natureOff the trail — and worth it

A gorge on the middle Tamagawa in Akita, walked at river level rather than viewed from above. A red suspension bridge marks the entrance, and old forest stands on the cliffs either side of the blue water.

FromKakunodate Station (Akita Shinkansen and JR Tazawako Line)
~15 min by roadBooked ride or taxi, ~15 min
Dakigaeri Gorge

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

This is a named autumn spot, not a quiet one. The foliage weeks bring cars and coaches to the same small car park. Two things thin the crowd anyway. The path is out-and-back, so numbers fall with every hundred metres upstream. And for months of the year it is simply shut: the trail closes for winter, and the reopening date moves from year to year.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Dakigaeri Shrinesmall shrine at the downstream entrance, where the path begins
Kami-no-Iwahashi Bridgered suspension span of eighty metres across the mouth of the gorge
The blue Tamagawacliff walls of old forest above water running a deep blue-green
The rock sectionworn and oddly shaped rock along the bank, with rapids between
Mikaeri Fallsa fall of roughly thirty metres, the turning point of the path

How to actually get there

Tokyo → Kakunodate Station (Akita Shinkansen Komachi, no change).
Kakunodate Station → gorge entrance (car, taxi or booked shared ride, about 15 min).
Past Dakigaeri Shrine onto the path, then across the suspension bridge and upstream.
Turn at Mikaeri Falls and walk the same path back to the entrance.

Kakunodate Station, then a short ride: Kakunodate is an Akita Shinkansen stop, so Tokyo reaches it without a change. From the station the gorge entrance is about fifteen minutes by road. Official guidance points to a car or taxi, or to Yobunoru Kakunodate, a booked shared-ride service. The shared ride has to be reserved by phone, so it is not something to arrange at the trailhead.
Back to Kakunodate: The same ride in reverse, with the same booking to make. Reserve the return leg when you arrive at the gorge rather than when you finish walking. Kakunodate Station puts you on a shinkansen to Tokyo without a change, and the samurai district is a short walk from that platform if you have time to fill.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The Tamagawa cuts through here on its middle course, and the gorge it has opened runs about ten kilometres between Lake Tazawa and Kakunodate. Cliffs rise on both banks under old forest, and the water below holds a blue that reads almost as pigment. The walking path keeps to river level with little climbing, so the gorge is met head-on rather than looked down into. It has long been called the Yabakei of Tohoku, after the Kyushu gorge it resembles. The path is a there-and-back: the way out is the way home.

How to enjoy it

From the gorge entrance to the falls is about thirty minutes on foot, and because the path is out-and-back, allow twice that for walking alone. Fresh green and autumn colour are the two seasons here, the leaves turning from early October into early November. An autumn festival runs in that stretch, and in some years buses are laid on from Kakunodate and Tazawako stations.

Background & history

The name comes from the shape of the ground. The old track through the gorge was so narrow and so steep that two people meeting on it had to hold one another and turn back the way they had come. The suspension bridge at the entrance was not built for walkers either. It went up in 1926 to carry a forest railway, moving timber felled upstream out to what is now Jindai Station on the JR Tazawako Line. It remains the oldest suspension bridge in the prefecture.

Before you go

Cash: No admission notice is posted for the path itself. Parking is the variable: in years when the autumn festival runs, notices have gone up making the car park paid for the period. Rates, and whether it applies at all, change year to year, so check the city page before you set out and carry some cash.
Good to know: Winter shuts the gorge. The path closes around late November and opens again in spring, but the reopening date moves and is announced each year. Single sections can also close for rockfall or repair work while the rest stays open, so read the current notice rather than last year's.
Another way: From the Lake Tazawa side, JR Tazawako Station is about twenty minutes by road. The nearest station of all is Jindai on the JR Tazawako Line, roughly five minutes away by car.
After you get off: You are set down at the car park at the gorge entrance. From there the path passes in front of Dakigaeri Shrine and reaches the foot of the suspension bridge within a few minutes.